“Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].” 2 Corinthians 5:17, Amplified Bible
I love this time of year. The days are getting warmer and longer. The grass is greener and the daffodils are beginning to bloom. The trees are starting to push out new growth and new buds as they reemerge from their dormancy during the winter. New life emerges after a long, cold winter.
Have you ever felt that there were times in your life when you are going through a time of dormancy in your faith? Some might call it a dry, dark, or wilderness season. I know I have. In fact, I’m just coming off of such a time in my faith. After going through extreme tragedy, I entered into a dark season in my own faith. I knew God was near me. However, I could tell that there was something different and off about my connection with Him.
What do we do when we find ourselves in situations like this? I didn’t know what else to do, so I just continued to do the things that I knew brought me to this point in my faith. I disciplined myself to still spend time with Jesus even though, in the moment, it felt just kind of like going through the motions.
These times used to bring anxiety about my relationship with God. I felt like these times were punishment for something that I’d done. Or even that, I’d somehow lost my salvation and I was doing something wrong. Now, I believe these times are necessary and crucial for our spiritual lives.
“Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” Colossians 3:10, New Living Translation
I have begun to view these times in my life not as a punishment, but as a time of renewal and growth. These are times in which Jesus is pruning me and shaping me more into His image.
Recently, as I was doing some yard work and pruning back some trees, Jesus spoke to me about this idea. I saw the new growth that had already begun even this spring. A tree that lay dormant all winter long and looked dead. However, it was always alive, but in a dormant season so that it can grow even more. Now it gets to reap the reward, it gets to experience new growth. The tree didn’t start over, from a tiny shoot again. Rather, it progressed in its growth from the point it left off in the fall. We are not being made new over and over again, rather we’re being renewed as we learn to know Him and become more like Him.
The readings of Francois Fenelon, a French Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet, and writer, have had a profound impact on me over the years. Recently, I read a portion in which Fenelon was corresponding with the grandson of Louis XIV, as he was assigned to him as a mentor to train him in his walk with Jesus as he was being prepared as an heir to the throne of France.
Fenelon said, “You yourself must endure the painful process of change. There is much more at work here than your instant maturity. God wants to build a relationship with you that is based on faith and trust and not on glamorous miracles.”
So many times, I’m more interested in the idea of instant maturity. I want the growth without the dark or dry times in my spiritual life. However, as Fenelon instructed me, I must endure the painful process of change. It’s in the dry times, the times of walking in the wilderness, that we are able to build our relationship with God. It causes us to increase our faith. We, like the tree each spring, are then able to come out of that time and experience the renewal, and new growth, that God desires for us.
I love the way that the writers of The Message version of the bible paraphrase this passage from James:
“Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.” James 1:2-4, The Message
Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged if you find yourself in a time of dormancy, or drought. Perhaps you feel like the joy of spending time with God has left you, press on. There’s more at the end of the struggle. At the end of the pain of perseverance, there’s a great reward! It’s increased faith, maturity, renewal, and new growth in our relationship with Jesus. The reward is more of Him!
I exhort you now to press on. Consider it pure joy. It is worth it!
